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I’m still off my skates…my knees are a lot better now but I still wince every time I’ve got to put any pressure on them. Sunday was pure torture, watching everyone glide around the sports hall like evil ballerinas. I’m not even sure I can make it to practice next week (I anticipate that I’ll be recovering from a very debauched hen party) so I’m already starting to get the ‘lack of skate shakes’. I’ve got aerobics later (I’m not chickening out this week) so maybe thatll be the hit I need!
Sunday’s plan was to take my camera with me to get some practice in, but after a long search on Saturday I ended up convinced that my cameras had gotten lost/stolen/left behind when we moved house. I was gutted because they were gifts from my dad and I ended up with nothing to do but make a nuisance of myself while everyone else tried to skate…not that that’s much different from when I’m actually skating! So…yesterday, me and Mr Gory togged up in our mountaineering gear and went for an excavatory trip through our spare room. We’ve only been here for three months, and we didn’t really downsize in the move, but we did somehow end up with a spare room literally FULL of stuff that we couldn’t bear not to bring with us.
A few hours, seven bin bags, five shredded boxes, a trip to the tip and a few arguments later, Matt appeared with both my SLRs! So now I’m the happy (non-stressed) owner of beautiful machinery AND a lovely tidy, organised, grown-up-esque spare bedroom! I even pulled my finger out and bought a new bookcase and a flat-pack office from the big laminated website of dreams as soon as we’d given up and settled on the sofa…give us a few weeks and we might even have this place looking like a adult couple lives in it!! Or maybe not…that’d be no fun!
Anyway…and here comes the point to all this…I have my cameras back! So I can take pictures!
I took a few this morning. Fletch isn’t feeling in the mood to keep still for too long so this is the best I can do…
…and this was already on the memory card from last summer…the Sally Dawg!
My Mom's really into Ornithology, and she likes to do it the lazy way so she's turned her back garden into some kind of Bird-orientated food court, with the intention of spying on them while they eat. Sneaky. Today someone new came to dinner...a Greater Spotted Woodpecker!...and a male one at that (it was the red spot on the back of his head that caught Dad's eye out the window in the first place)...He spent ages pigging out in woodpecker style (attacking the food by pummelling it with his head) before hopping further up the tree to try and rustle himself up a date. He didn't cling onto the trunk, but he held a branch and just pecked around by his feet. I've never seen a woodpecker in real life before so this was amazing...maybe just slightly sad that I've documented it here, but hey ho...what can I say? I'm sad!
So...I might not be hurting right now but I'm really paying for the past few days. I've already chickened out of aerobics tonight. I know I should get up off my bum and go but I feel like puking. It's not like I'm quitting altogether though, I'm booking in for next week. The dog's going to get a superlong walk tomorrow to make up for today's wussiness!My disco bruises are still pathetic looking, even though they're still making kneeling and getting into bed difficult, but at least one of them looks like a bruise now!
...and I've pinched someone's picture of the CCR contingency at the LRG bout...
(from left to right it's: Toby aka Chet Wisconsin, Ouija Broad, Jason aka Mr. Panzer, Nat, Demonic Panzer, Trophy Wife, Tragic Wrath, Me (Hope N. Gory), Mark, Eve L. Hart, Steph (back), Hustle'Her (front) and Steve aka Casey Axelrod...)I'm not usually that short...and I wasn't expecting my semi-squat to be part of the shot...but at least you get to see my wicked tights :D I also discovered from the LRG Myspace Blog that Ana Ki actually broke her leg in FOUR places...she's one brave rollergirl! I saw how badly her leg was hurt from my seat when she lifted her leg off the track, but her reaction denied any injury at all! You've got to hand it to those London girls...they put on an amazing show and they're made of strong stuff!
It's been a really busy few days...but fun busy, so the tiredness and nausea is well worth it! http://www.tilllate.com/ have uploaded pictures from the Roller Disco last Thursday...
Me, Chet Wisconsin, Lauren LaBurn and Daisy Pain
Chet and Daisy
Me and Daisy before the crowds took over the dancefloor
Daisy is a Pain ;)...I'm so jealous!
I didn't even come close to getting an early night on friday, even though I felt like a zombie, but it didn't stop me being uberexcited about the LRG's New Year's Retribution Bout. The minibus was buzzing with chatter the whole two hour and a half hours there, and in a completely shocking turn of events we didn't get lost in London, we arrived early and we even had time to grab snacks before being the first in the queue to get into the hall. It all paid off and we got amazing trackside seats...and later on we were rewarded with no less than three rollergirls in our laps! N-Emma-Si5, Correctional Felicity and Slice Andice all got thrown into us from out of nowhere (it seemed)...but we held fast and didn't spill our beers.
We were cheering for Team Pink, and it was so close, but in the end Pink managed to pull ahead of Team Black and steal the Retribution victory. Unfortunately Ana Ki sustained an injury, but she was so calm that it was hard to believe she was so badly hurt! Kudos to her...I hope she recovers quickly!
The afterparty was also a lot of fun, even if it did take an age to get served at the bar! We hung out chatting with the Bedford Bandits and the London Rockin' Rollers before jumping in the minibus for the journey home. A few of us succumbed to sleep, which was some mean feat considering the rest of us spent most of the time recounting the bout, the roller disco and the next day's practice as well as singing along (very tunefully) to classic 80s songs...
In the end I got home about half three and into bed for 4am in time to grab another three and a half hour's sleep. Mr Gory's an International Paintball Star and so he was up bright and early for training, waking me and Eve L Hart so I put on the coffee and steeled myself for a two hour Trophy Wife practice on very little sleep and lots of caffine and adrenaline.
Despite wanting to puke for the whole two hours (and skating off at one point to do so) I stuck it out and tried my hardest to lead the pack as Pivot. I'm not 100% sure that Pivot is the best choice for me...it's a lot more involved than you'd probably think. To start with, like every other girl on the track you're having to fight to keep your position (and keep upright) but you're having to do this whilst continuously looking behind you and making sure that none of your team have lost their position or gotten in trouble. And while you're doing all this you're also trying to keep control of the entire pack, scream strategy to your blockers, and be the one to hold back the opposition's Jammer when she's snuck past everyone else...
My attention span isn't so great, and many times during practice it was all I could do to keep wide and low and at the front of the pack, let alone keeping any kind of control. I guess it's not the kind of thing that you're going to be perfect at straight away...maybe once I'm comfortable with the skating position then the other stuff will start to come more naturally. It's so difficult to keep dodging around the track stretched out to take up loads of room, and my thighs were killing me after just a few minutes. I was expecting to be crippled this morning but I seemd to be pretty ache-free in comparisson to my usual post-practice agony. I must be getting fitter...it's hard to believe, maybe it's more like my body has given up complaining. It must think I'm crazy! I was even practicing knee-falls with these massive disco-bruises...I swear Roller Derby has made a masochist of me!
Thinking about it, it's got to have done...from thursday to sunday I had about ten hours sleep, Skated for 7 and a half hours (5 and half at the disco, 2 at practice) travelled for around 8 hours from events and home...and it was such a brilliant weekend that I'm worried the rest of 2008 is going to struggle to match up!!
Something weird is going on with my body…I think it’s finally had enough of me battering the shit out of it and now it’s just ignoring me and getting on with things on its own. Usually, the day after skate practice I feel like all my joint lubrication has dried out and been replaced with hot sand, my shoulders ache and you could probably do a dot-to-dot picture using the bruises and scratches all over me. Tuesday night at aerobics I sweated SO much more than I usually do at skate practice, so I was fully expecting a day of groaning torture on Wednesday, and when I woke up I felt…fine! It was amazing, and weird, and it made me wonder if I’d worked as hard as I thought I had.
If things couldn’t get more amazing after that, a wonderful man had messaged me to ask if I was interested in marshalling the opening night of Birmingham’s Roller Disco! I was so excited at the thought of combining work and skating that I didn’t take the time to think about the 5 hours on wheels…or the 3am finish time. I’ve had three hours sleep but I’m still on a high…albiet a very modest high that expresses itself from under a blanket whilst watching daytime TV. And that's the third amazing thing...even after five hours of skating and only a few hours sleep I've woken up ache-free again!
Me, my fellow CCR (Daisy Pain, Lauren LaBurn and Chet Wisconsin) and the other marshalls policed the dance floors, picking up fallen skaters, helping people get their roll on and taking full advantage of the skatey goodness. It was bliss skating round an empty dancefloor with my friends, and it was even better when the floor was rammed with flailing skaters…I whooped with joy when everyone managed to make one continuous conga circle! I also laughed with hysterics as said conga line collapsed and suddenly we had a very large pile of tangled limbs, skates and disco gear. Bad marshall!
It wasn’t all good though…I may have woken up this morning minus muscle pain, but I was skating without my pads last night and a couple of unfortunate falls (one being pushed at high speed by a cackling Tragic Wrath….who landed on me in true rollergirl style!) meant that it feels like I’ve got golfballs under my black and blue knees! I’m actually a little disappointed that my bruises aren’t bigger because at the moment I can’t get a good photo of them! I’m seriously considering investing in a BIG bottle of witch hazel…just to improve the aesthetic quality of my skating injuries. This non-bruising thing is really getting me down!
Roll on tomorrow…CCR road trip!!
Oh my god...I had no idea what I was letting myself in for last night! The word aerobics conjures up images of ladies with fluffy perms bopping around to music. I went along with the incredibly stupid notion that two hours of pissing round on skates every week makes me anywhere near fit. I even had the cheek to look down my nose at the sleek-tummied aerobics bunnies because I'm a rollergirl! How wrong was I? I mean, we work hard, but we also have water-breaks and drills where some of us get to sit and stretch. We don't spend the whole two hours skating hell-for-leather round the edge of the sports hall til we're on the verge of collapse. Because that's pretty much the equivalent of 80s aerobics!I totally underestimated how much coordination I'd need, and to begin with I just pranced around at the back of the class trying to do a good impression of keeping up. It wasn't the greatest place to hide...not when I was laughing like a donkey, and especially not when the front of the room was completely mirrored. I grape-vined over a few people's feet, almost took Ouija Broad's eye out on a few occasions and at one point the wall (the metaphorical 'wall'...I'm not that uncoordinated) hit me straight in the face and my feet wouldn't come off the floor anymore, but powerade has life-saving abilities...especially when administered in HUGE doses. I got a second wind from somewhere, but the warm-down couldn't come fast enough for me.I was disappointed that no one apart from the instructor seems to dress up...I'm going to have to dress up in a non-dressing-up kind of way. I have no idea how I'm going to do this without looking like an idiot, but then again, if I'm willing to walk around a nice family pub dressed in my practice outfit then an aerobics class should be no problem. I make myself look like enough of an idiot as it is with my dodgy moves, lack of concentration and neon pink face, so to be honest my clothes are probably the least of my worries!Despite thinking 'what the hell am I doing?' many MANY times during the session, it was only 45 minutes, and it'll be easier next time. I hope. Also, I felt brilliant afterwards and it may even encourage me to join the gym...or run...or walk the dog further than the post office (where the chocolate and tattoo mags are). I've put my name down for next week and there's no backing out now :/And it's only two days til the LRG Bout! Our minibus is packed...the ride down's going to be as much fun as watching Team Black and Team Pink kick each other's asses! I still haven't decided who to cheer for yet. Last bout I supported team Black, but now I've kind of got a thing for pink so it might have to be Team Pink afterall...gah, decisions decisions...
So, I was just about to begin a blog about how I'm waiting waiting waiting to hear back about a job I applied for...but then I clicked refresh on my email browser and there it was. Their reply. Their negative reply.
Disappointed is not the word. UBERDISAPPOINTED comes semi-close to what I'm feeling right now, but I'm sure I'll get over it. I've got an 80s aerobics class later with Ouija Broad, Hustle'her and maybe Dynomite Bo too...I may have to weep on a few shoulders...at least this'll give me the anger to keep going for the whole 45 minutes and not just flake out in a red sweaty heap! I'm not really sure what to expect. The whole '80s' part of it implies dressing up (my main motivation for going, I must admit) and I've got my future outfit already planned, but until I have chance to go shopping I'll probably just wear my gym stuff. I mean, it's practically brand new...
I think my take on practice was a success….on Saturday night myself, my sister and Eve L. Hart were falling alseep over coffees, and by Sunday morning I received a few texts telling me how much everyone was hurting. It’s two days after now and I still ache like a bastard, and I sat out on one of the most demanding drills because I couldn’t take part and blow the whistle at the same time! The ironic thing was that it was one of the things I needed to practice (knee-dips mid skate to avoid a block or regain your balance), and everyone else already seemed to have gotten it down. But all those knee-dips have got to be hard on your thighs…at least that’s what all the text messages tell me. I wouldn’t know myself ;)
I had so much stuff planned for us to do (I have too many favorite drills) that in the end I had to face the fact that it wasn’t possbile to fit it all in (even factoring in the certainty that with me leading practice the main trouble-maker/timewaster would be occupied) so I focused on endurance skating, games that involved lots of fast skating, dodging and ducking, and relay races. Everyone worked so hard…it was really demanding but we all had fun at the same time. After a few long speed-skake sessions we had a game of dodgeball to lighten things up. It was probably the most fun of all and I sustained a nice patch of rink rash on my ass (and a lovely growing bruise). Ouija Broad and I decided to go for the same fallen ball, but she (the queen of the low-takedown) managed to bump me to my ass as I was squatting down to retrieve it. I was left sitting on my butt as she skated away triumphant. Bitch. She’s too good ;)
I had a wicked time…I’m still glowing from the joy of being ‘Sgt Major’…or maybe it’s just because we had yet another amazing practice? I can’t wait for the LRG bout and our practice next week. We never did get to try out my new drill but I’ll post about it’s success/failure when we do.
Wreck’n’roll xx
We’ve been in our new flat for over three months now, and tonight is my second night of web surfing in my own home…I can’t tell you how much I’ve overdosed on the internet in the past 30 odd hours, but it’s obscene.
The new year and seems to be working on me. I’m leading practice this Saturday and I’m actually prepared for it! Organisation is definitely not my strong point (like many other skills that useful adults need) but this time I seem to be on the ball. Sort of. I’ve still got to scale down my list of drills so that it all fits in…I’ve got far too many favorites! Plus I’ve even had the insight to come up with a drill of my own. I don’t know if it’s something that’s already in use and I’ve just overheard someone talking about it, forgotten, and then dreamed the idea up as ‘my own’. Either way, if it works and it’s original then I shall reveal all. I’m a bit paranoid that it might be a big of crap when I try and put it into action.
Saturday is going to be such a challenge. Usually I’m really bad at instructing people on how they should be skating when I know perfectly well what I’m doing for most things. Generally it feels that although I can do it myself, I can’t put together the words to explain to someone else so it’s hard to have confidence in what I’m saying. Every other time I’ve been thrown into it so I’ve kind of stumbled around explaining things, gotten embarrassed and left them to ‘keep practicing!’ This time I’ve had time to prepare, I’ve used it well (shock horror) and with any luck I should make a good immitation of pulling it off.
Roll on the 12th!
